Parents frequently ask us at Larger Than Lice how to remove head lice within the home. If I can only count how many times I, or one of our Lice Specialists have arrived to a home only to find ten, twenty, thirty garbage bags full of “household things”. One family even went as far as removing their curtains, just in case. On top of all that, countless numbers of laundry loads have already been done. No wonder head lice becomes such a stressful event for many parents. I almost feel bad telling the families that all this cleaning is just excessive and not necessary at all. That’s right. Excessive cleaning is not at all required when you, or your child has a case of lice.

The reason? Head lice live on the head. They do not live on inanimate objects. They have no interest in leaving one’s head to go wander around on the living room couch, or kitchen floor, or roam the car. A human host is the only place they want to be, the only place that they can potentially survive a whole month while they feed off of the blood of an individual. Typically, a louse that has fallen off the head is not healthy and is in the process of dying. Once they are away from their feeding source, a louse can only survive up to 24 hours. And let's pretend as though a healthy louse has fallen off and has found its way onto the couch- it will not burrow or sit around and wait for another human to sweep it off its feet and place it back into a new head. The chances of getting a displaced louse back into one’s hair are as small as finding a needle in a haystack, nearly impossible.

Remember that lice are not living in your environment, they are living with you!

Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that need to be cleaned and laundered, but the list is very minimal. Laundering the bedding, any recently used towels and bathrobes is important. Same goes for all recently used hairbrushes and hair accessories. Bagging, laundering or drying on high heat should be considered for any stuffed toys that reside in your child’s bed. That is it. Use the rest of your energy on properly eliminating head lice and nit picking. Being meticulous is essential if you want to rid head lice for good. Removing every single nit is crucial to being lice free so make sure that no nits are left behind, which is exactly what Larger Than Lice are experts in.

When Larger Than Lice dispatches a Lice Specialist for an in-home lice removal treatment, you can rest assured that every single live louse and viable nit will be removed – in just one visit. After one lice treatment, and minimal laundering, you can rest at ease and be confident that your home will be lice-free.